International Film
by Jeremy Carr.
There has never been a Hollywood film as self-referential as the 1970s Locust daya twisted and twisted tale of a stained life, despair, and, ultimately, utter madness.
Hollywood has always been fairly adept at building itself up, producing films that flaunt the glamor of Tinseltown, the glory of sun-kissed stardom, and the magic of movie magic. At the same time, and especially in the hands of more rebellious filmmakers, Hollywood has also proven itself adept at tearing itself back apart, exposing the insidious side of industrial exploitation and broken dreams to produce films that are by turns tragic and comedic, satirical and downright sarcastic. Stinging. But there has never been a Hollywood film as self-referential as the 1970s film Locust daya twisted and twisted tale of a stained life, despair, and, ultimately, utter madness.
Based on the 1939 novel by Nathanael West and adapted by the publisher Midnight Cowboy (1969) The team of screenwriter Waldo Salt and director John Schlesinger, Locust day Her caustic lens focuses largely on a trio of strangers. There is, first, Todd Hackett (William Atherton), who toils in a major art department at a major studio waiting for his big break, which he finally gets when he is assigned to an ill-fated historical epic. Then there’s his neighbor Faye (Karen Black), an aspiring actress who does everything she can to make her presence known as she struggles to land a small part where she can utter a single sentence. They initially form a relatively ordinary couple, reluctant romantics who both yearn for something greater than their current station. After a while, Homer Simpson (yes, Homer Simpson) enters the picture. Played by Donald Sutherland, he is a down-on-his-luck accountant who also develops an unbalanced and unsustainable relationship with Faye while losing himself in the obsession of her social circle.
Atherton, in one of his first roles, just a year after appearing in Steven Spielberg’s film Sugarland Express, he essentially plays the straight man, observing his surroundings and those around him with detached amazement. His usual demeanor works effectively enough as a surrogate vessel to introduce us to the sights and sounds of his—and the film’s—sphere, but a drunken night out reveals a hitherto unknown aggressive and deviant side and changes our perception of his character dramatically. with Easy Rider (1969) and Five easy pieces (1970) succeeded by W nashville It comes out in the same year Locust day, the black color was more grounded and had a more deceptive effect. Much older than her character in West’s novel (just 17 in the book), Black adds a sense of weariness and volatility that would likely have been difficult for a younger actress to convey, though she does it very well. Meanwhile, Sutherland seems immediately strange and suspicious; Not because he looks remotely malicious, but because he’s so awkward and out of sync with everyone else (at one point he was literally looking in from the outside). Sutherland’s eccentric, restless and pained performance was the first in a series of eerily magnetic roles, soon followed by similarly unsettling characters in 1900 (1976) and Casanova Fellini (1976).
The events take place just before World War II, Locust day It refers to the entire world of His creation and existence. Todd and Faye attend a screening of one of her films but leave quickly and carelessly when a newsreel featuring Hitler appears on the screen.Which It is not their world, nor their concern. This sense of exclusivity, however slight, feeds an undercurrent of infectious alienation that runs throughout the image.
In crafting this meandering film (which runs nearly two and a half hours), Salt and Schlesinger often ride a fine line between intrigue and bewilderment, allowing ample time to explore a wide range of disparate people, wandering through chaos and monotony, uncertainty about their survival and deviance. Which could easily — and often did — tarnish the Golden Age of Hollywood: “the Mecca of broken dreams,” as a tour guide sarcastically called the city as he stood under the Hollywoodland sign and told of the star. suicide. Rotor quality Locust day It can sometimes drag the picture into periods of banality and even tedium, but these digressions also form part of the film’s growing tension, a constant unrest that builds and builds as people come and go and the tone fluctuates between moody romance, comedy and disaster. And horror.
Along the way, some of these people have a more lasting impact than others, like Faye’s elderly father, a former theater artist turned door-to-door salesman played by Burgess Meredith. He embodies the sweep of the film by being pitiful and heartbreaking in one scene, humorous in the next, and vindictive in the next. On the whole, and maybe this is Hollywood in a nutshell, everyone aims for uniqueness while also trying to achieve acceptable conformity. From ruthless studio head Hilverston (Paul Stewart), who disapproves of a disastrous on-set accident, to young Abe (Billy Barty), the obnoxious tough guy, to obnoxious child star Adore (the young and surprisingly annoying Jackie Earle Haley), It takes all kinds to make this city a success, as well Locust day It shows that it takes all kinds to make it a hell of corruption and danger.
Locust day It exposes imperfection in a way that is so damning, sometimes so cruel, and always so captivating.
However, in this regard, while there is an attempted rape and some minor scenes of stereotypical Hollywood debauchery (a stag party and booze-fueled revelry), Locust day Surprisingly restraint in what could I photographed. But this does not mean that Schlesinger is always conservative. The diffuse, engineered glitz and turbulent lighting are uncomfortably affecting (cinematographer Conrad L. Hall earned one of the film’s two Oscar nominations, Meredith the other), while a delirious religious gathering evokes the “Jesus Saves” hysteria glimpsed and heard in the film. Midnight Cowboy The cockfighting sequence is undoubtedly disturbing. where Locust day Different from something like this Midnight CowboyEven if it is not considered. Granted, Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso and Jon Voight’s Joe Buck are also alien social outcasts, and the previous film similarly exposes the darkness behind closed doors, but we are almost immediately attuned to their desperate plight in an unforgiving world. This is not the case with Todd, Faye, and Homer. They are certainly curious characters (especially Homer), and there is a degree of sympathy for their conjoined and individual experiences, but they are more like constructed movie character types than distinct human beings.
Given its sometimes stalled momentum and uncertain path, one can never be sure where it will be Locust day The film is building towards its climax, so when the film does reach its climax, taking place at the release of a photo of Cecil B. DeMille on the red carpet, the insanity that ensues is astounding. The picture descends into nightmarish pandemonium, driven partly by the hoopla of the star-studded premiere but mostly resulting from a moment of unexpected, raw brutality that is undoubtedly the film’s most memorable part. Of course, the radio announcer portrays the mayhem as just another entertainment spectacle, but the truth is something much scarier, more surreal, and more terrifying. But that’s Hollywood: pretense, deception, and fabrication. Like the crack in the wall of Todd’s apartment, the restoration could easily be covered with a painting or decorated with a flower, but the crack remains intact. Locust day He exposes this imperfection in a way that is very damning, sometimes very harsh, and always captivating. For all its harsh realities, the film is also far from reality, a symbol of the Dream Factory’s capacity for imagination and façade and a poignant critique of what one would never see spread across the pages of a fanzine.
Jeremy Carr He is a contributing editor at International Film He teaches film studies at Arizona State University. He writes for publications Cinema, Cinema Senses, MUBI/Notebook, Retro Cinema, Occult Visions, Retro Collection, Moving Image, Diabolique Magazine And Fandor. He is an author repulsion (1965) from Autor Publishing and a contributor to the collections Refocus: The Films of Elaine Mayfrom Edinburgh University Press, and David Fincher Horoscope: Investigation cinema and misinterpretation, From Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
